format

collective creativity / community production / sociocultural change

how can every individual become an active designer of his own life? what does design mean in a design process people can enact themselves? which process needs to be designed? how does a self-enacted designer look? what will be the impact of a new economy with structures such as new work on design? which resulting content will be relevant for design education in the future?

our project is an investigation of production with computer-controlled tools and their relationships between collective creativity as well as their relation to the economic system and contemporary definitions of work. we stress new formats and form finding methods for collective content of information and local production as a new way of work which can be a role model in the future. we focus on new design methodologies through collective creativity as an attempt for sociocultural change.

it seems that mass production has created a cultivation of nostalgia as working process become automated and substitute human beings, replacing their jobs. in contrast, we refer to the philosophy of ‘new work’ by frithjof bergmann “it is an umbrella term for an evolving set of ideas about work and the human spirit. the core values of ‘new work’ are self-reliance, individual freedom, and community involvement.” can this utopia become a blueprint capable of optimizing or even re-designing the environment?

in juxtaposition to mass culture the tool is back in the hand of the maker / thinker / consumer. our interest is to envision and create scenarios for production methods / distribution / creation of products as a means for social change.